Rahlstedt. Nacht. Innen. (1982)

Ti­tle of the album: Materialien zur Postmoderne in Bild und Ton
Ti­tle: Rahlstedt. Nacht. Innen. Tonband-Komposition in 3 Sätzen (Track 01)
Publisher: Edition Block, Berlin
Da­te: 1982
Me­di­um: re­cord 30 cm

Rahlstedt. Nacht. Innen. is the first track on the LP Materialien Zur Postmoderne In Bild Und Ton by Claus Böhmler, which was printed on white vinyl and published by Edition Block in 1986. On the insert are some of the drawings made during the recording of Rahlstedt. Night. Inside.. The title Rahlstedt refers to the district of the same name in Hamburg.

Claus Böhmler taps, blows, plucks and pulls various musical instruments briefly one after the other without playing a designated melody. Since he plays the piece alone, the sounds of the various musical instruments can be heard one after the other. The piece consists of three sound loops recorded with the help of magnetic tape and layered on top of each other. The combination of tapped, blown, plucked and played sounds creates a changing atmosphere. The fragments strung together have the character of background music that could sound on and on. The accompanying score for this Muzak was written during the recording.

Muzak is used as a technical term for background music in public and commercial environments - from department stores to elevators - and is also the name for the type of music associated with it, an unobtrusive, unpretentious, pleasing, harmless music. It is atmospheric music that provides a relaxed and pleasant mood and stimulates a wide variety of activities. It is usually instrumental music because it is considered that human voices and sung lyrics attract too much attention.

In musique concrète, which is based on the tape recording technique that has been developing since the 1940s, the distinction between atmospheric noise and music becomes blurred.

_ATJ